Anise and fennel seeds share a primary flavour compound: anethol. Hence, they go really well together, and they can be substituted for one another. Such is the wisdom that can be found in the fantastic Flavour Thesaurus, which MrM got me when he was about to give up hope in my early culinary experiments. So I made an experiment (yes, another one! but with some method), a generous splash of absinthe, just on tomatoes to begin with...
Ingredients:
2 hake fillets
300g fresh french beans
15 cherry tomatoes
15ml absinthe
few fennel seeds
40g butter
EVO oil
salt & pepper
Preparation:
Roughly chop the tomatoes and place them in a frying pan with a small pinch of salt and half of the butter, let them simmer for few minutes until tender with a mash-like texture. Add a generous splash of absinthe - roughly 15ml - turn up the heat at full whack until the alcohol smell goes away.
In another frying pan spread some fennel seeds, drizzle some EVO oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper on it. Turn the heat on and, when the pan is hot, lay the hake fillets and grind some additional salt on top.
A couple of minutes before serving, add the tomatoes to the fillets. Serve immediately.
I added some french beans in butter as side veggie.
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